Originally Posted by
cyber_scriber
Mike.
I used to own an AUDM S15 for a couple of years and I've driven a few Type Rs in my time.
It really depends on your intended purpose for the car.
The S15 is likely to be a better daily driver. Torquey turbo response means that you don't need to be thrashing the living daylights out of the S15 to get real world performance e.g. plugging that gap you see in the next lane; taking off in a lane that's about to end without looking like a tool and revving like mad etc. Refinement is also better in the Nissan in terms of lower noise, more compliant ride etc.
Stock vs stock (and you'll find that lots of S15s are modded), I find the Type R more fun to drive but only in the right conditions. For example, if I did a lot of driving in deserted twisty passes or did a lot of track time, the Honda would be a hoot - keeping it on song, working the "snick, snick" box between gears and going hard on the brakes. However, if most of your driving is done in real world conditions and in traffic, I'd bet that the S15 is the better tool for the job. For example, I found the Type R too loud, too hard, too focused and with a power band that is far too narrow for the daily grind (e.g. it's not very practical and can get tiring keeping a car above 6,000rpm to extract decent performance).
Think of the Type R as a scalpel and the S15 as a hunting knife. One requires more skill and precision and is rewarding when you get it right - the other is great when you just want to make bloody big cuts in things!
I find it a little unusual that there's a perception of the S15 being unreliable. In the time that I had mine, absolute nothing went wrong. However, I am a fastidious owner and changed the oil every 5,000klms and kept the car fully serviced. As with any car (even a Honda), if it's not properly maintained, it's not likely to be reliable. The "reliability" issue with the S15 is often the fully sik owner who ups the boost on their S15, chops the springs and then laments at how unreliable the car is when the engine blows because the owner hasn't bothered to engineer the rest of the car to cope with the added power.
The other issue with reliability is that it's easy for a car to be reliable at 141kw, 147 or 154kw but if another car is putting out 250kw, well, that's not really an apples with apples comparison! What I am alluding to is you'll find lots of S15s pushing 200kw at the wheels and this power level obviously puts more stress on the mechanical components (I'm wondering how reliable a 200kwatw Type R will be?).
On the topic of big power, this is where the S15 has a clear advantage. A few of the boys pulled almost an extra 50kw at the wheels with nothing more than a full exhaust and pod filter (easily under $2k). I'm guessing that you'll need a second mortgage to get the same kind of power gains from a Type R.
The best thing to do is to get behind the wheel of both cars and drive them in your intended driving environment. That way, you'll get fewer surprises when you do finally buy the car e.g. "Man, I've got to absolutely thrash this car just to keep up with a Toyota Aurion in real world conditions" or "Geez, it's only started raining and the car is sliding all over the place!" ;)
